If you are transgendered and confused, that's okay. Find yourself and come to grips with it. But be warned: if you actually go through with some kind of genital changing operations, there's no going back. EVER.

I remember there was a cartoon like this in one of the Playboy or Penthouse magazines I had stashed as a youngster, except the dude was on the operating table saying he'd changed his mind while the surgeon had the dude's junk already detached and ready to put in the tray thing.

I wonder if the people who gave him a sex change did a psych exam. That could have helped determine whether or not he would have been mentally fit to make such a discussion. From what I know of transgendered folk, when they have that surgery they 100% of the time keep it.

It is posible that his transgenderism came from mental illness, unlike the most common cause of genetics.

/Transgendered are the least represented in the LGBT group//They need more people speaking up for them///They are more likely to kill themselves, they need our love

cman:I wonder if the people who gave him a sex change did a psych exam. That could have helped determine whether or not he would have been mentally fit to make such a decision . From what I know of transgendered folk, when they have that surgery they 100% of the time keep it.

It is posible that his transgenderism came from mental illness, unlike the most common cause of genetics.

/Transgendered are the least represented in the LGBT group//They need more people speaking up for them///They are more likely to kill themselves, they need our love

At this stage in our knowledge of biology, neuroscience, and surgery, I'd say this is pretty much true. There are many reasons we don't allow children to make decisions on their own, even decisions that ostensibly might be good for them.

We don't let them decide not to go to school. Is it really right to agree with a 6 year old when they insist they are of the wrong sex? http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=3088298&page=1

I do understand the reasoning that if they are of the wrong gender it's much much better to switch before puberty.

I had a transgendered friend back in college who transitioned from male to female.

She had to go through so much to do it, to make absolutely sure that there was no chance of going back. Years of meetings with a therapist, living full time as a woman for years, basically having to justify it to multiple medical/mental health professionals and jump through a series of hoops meant to make sure you were content with it being a one-way trip.

Is it easier to do in the UK? I couldn't imagine somebody who went through everything my friend went through, basically being interviewed and analyzed and counseled for hours a week, for years about motivation and reasons and feelings on the issue, while living as a woman full time the whole time. By the time she had the operation, she had changed her name legally well over a year prior, had been working at a job where everyone there only had ever known her as a woman, had not acted in a male gender role for two years, and had spent hundreds of hours between therapists, endocrinologists, and psychiatrists. She'd broken up with her longtime girlfriend/fiancee of several years, and been disowned by much of her family.

Seriously, I thought before they let you have irreversible surgery they made 100% sure you were committed to this, and knew beyond a shadow of a doubt it's what you want and there is no going back.

Silverstaff:Seriously, I thought before they let you have irreversible surgery they made 100% sure you were committed to this, and knew beyond a shadow of a doubt it's what you want and there is no going back.

I know next to nothing about it, but surfing the net, it's not clear this is true anymore, or that people can't relatively easily self-medicate their own hormone treatments, or that doctors make it much easier to transition.

Silverstaff:Seriously, I thought before they let you have irreversible surgery they made 100% sure you were committed to this, and knew beyond a shadow of a doubt it's what you want and there is no going back.

cman:What I meant was that I was wondering if they were looking for something that could have caused transgenderism. For all we know his transgenderism could have been a symptom, not the sickness itself.

Maybe he just liked the feel of a summer dress, and figured he had to be a chick to get the full-on experience.

PallMall:cman: What I meant was that I was wondering if they were looking for something that could have caused transgenderism. For all we know his transgenderism could have been a symptom, not the sickness itself.

Maybe he just liked the feel of a summer dress, and figured he had to be a chick to get the full-on experience.

Ambivalence:RoyBatty: Ambivalence: So be a lesbian. Plenty of people get gender reassignment to female and still have sexual relations with women. Who you're attracted to has nothing to do with gender identity.

Regardless, he now feels trapped in the wrong body, no different than a 18 or 23 year old.

And he is probably attracted to women that are not lesbians so they have no attraction to him.

Being trapped in the wrong body is what would have made him switch in the first place. Maybe there is no "right" body for him.

I disagree. Children should have priority because once they hit puberty, there's no turning back and they end up looking like a man with breasts in a bikini.

This one is something that I struggle with. It is not a question of morals, but it is a question of safety. Is suppressing a natural occurrence in your body the right decision? Could it lead to medical issues down the road?